Digital Homicide will go down in history as one of the most embarrassing blights on the gaming industry. Since one of the two Romines has decided to put himself back into the public eye by publishing propaganda about the company’s short-lived history, now is as good of a time as any to bring up the company’s titles in reference to…Warcraft 3?
Yes, Warcraft 3. Following Blizzard’s PR nightmare last year regarding Hearthstone and Blitzchung, the company finds itself once again being nearly universally roasted over the release of Warcraft 3: Reforged. You name it, customers are probably angry over it. Misleading advertising, reduced animations, broken servers, merging the remake with the original client, Blizzard’s EULA stating they own any mod you make, the list goes on and on and on.
But you know the proverbial shinola has hit the fan when your AAA game is rated lower than Digital Homicide’s worst-rated title. More than 10,000 people have voted on Warcraft 3 on Metacritic and have given the game a 0.6 rating. By contrast DigiHom’s lowest rated game is The Slaughtering Grounds which stands at a 0.9.
Yes, Warcraft 3 is viewed less favorably than a developer that tried to launch frivolous lawsuits against 100 Steam uses and a Youtube critic for being mean.
January’s Humble Choice games are now available for choosing. This month has twelve games to choose from, meaning even those of you with classic plans won’t be able to grab everything. Looking at the library however you might not want to.
The highlights of this month are certainly Shadow of War and Street Fighter V, with Graveyard Keeper and Two Point Hospital attracting quite a following of their own.
Middle Earth: Shadow of War
Graveyard Keeper
Two Point Hospital
Dirt Rally 2.0
Street Fighter V
Bad North Jotunn Edition
Trailmakers
Unrailed
Whispers of a Machine
Fightin Herds
Mages of Mystralia
Grip
In addition, Unparallel is available as a DRM free download.
The Internet Memesters Union has brought us another floater, and it’s only a matter of time before the press throws itself on this turd.
These days the best way to get attention when putting out a low-effort game on Steam is to be bad, and I mean impressively bad. Any crew of college students can put out an unremarkable Unreal engine shooter and throw a hissy fit when it gets criticized, but in order to actually get sales you’re going to have to appeal to one of two “i’ll buy anything for the irony of it” demographics; the hentai demographic and what I have started calling the Internet Memesters Union. These groups of course go hand in hand with the “I’ll buy anything with easy achievements” and Russian trading card bot farms.
Now given that the Coronavirus has become a serious topic, it was only a matter of time before the Memesters Union jumped on board with all of its original hilarity. Coronavirus Simulator is an upcoming Steam game whose developer credits are Evil Scientists and Reptilian, and publishers are Uzbekistan Bears and Putin Team. Get it? Putin? Putin’s still funny, right? Putin!
“This time you will take on the role of a coronovirus, arriving directly from the laboratory of evil geniuses. Your task is to destroy humanity on planet Earth and spread throughout the galaxy. Modify your genome as it develops, improve your immunity to extreme conditions, and stay tuned for vaccine development!”
How quirky and random, and the only thing worth talking about in a shoddy clicker game.
But this crew isn’t the only one falling over itself to get in on the edgelord demographic as another title just simply called Coronavirus is also on its way out this month.
Coronavirus looks like it was hastily cobbled together out of a pre-built asset pack, which makes sense considering how long the virus has been a thing and that the game is coming out on February 14. Coronavirus is in development by soboleznyou which our on staff KGB agent says roughly means a message of condolences.
On the other hand if this means the Memesters Union is moving away from ‘God Emperor Trump’ games, it can’t be all that bad. At the very least I haven’t seen any images of Pepe the Frog showing up in the promo screenshots. Get ready for certain members of the press to throw themselves on these titles to scream about toxicity on Steam or something.
Camelot Unchained was Kickstarted in 2013 and is now many years behind schedule. What is City State Entertainment going to do about it? Work on a second game, of course!
MassivelyOP conducted an interview with Mark Jacobs today ahead of the announcement of Colossus, a second game that has been in development since July of last year. Jacobs acknowledges that some people are bound to be angry about this announcement, but promises that the existence of Colossus has brought in improvements that will also be enjoyed by Camelot Unchained.
“I think that people will react the way people always react to things. Some will be angry, some will be “Whatever, as long as we get CU,” and others will be happy, as they will see all the good stuff that is now part of the engine. And, if something is part of the engine, that means it’s part of CU. Others will be happy because they will get to play an additional game besides CU that they are not being charged for, and they’ll be especially happy if they like PvE games.”
You only get to play an additional game if either of them actually hits launch, Mark.
After missing its latest release date expectation, City State Entertainment still has no clue when people can expect to see Camelot Unchained launched. Colossus meanwhile has a tentative release date of the end of the year. If it actually makes that launch date, we will be shocked.
Ghost Recon: Breakpoint is in the middle of an invasion by Skynet, and that means killing plenty of Terminators.
Right now we’re in day three of the Terminator event and mission #2 should be releasing on February 1. With that in mind I’ve decided to delve a little deeper and talk about more tips for killing those metal rust buckets making life on Auroa just a little rougher.
#1: You Can Kite Terminators Across The Island
Have a lot of time and patience? You can kite Terminators pretty much anywhere. Kiting refers to pulling enemies away from where they would normally be hanging out.
In tip #3 for the last article I mentioned that Terminators can and will mow down an enemy base in order to get to you, and that Skell soldiers will in turn open fire on a Terminator once it is activated in their vicinity. You will know this is happening because the “faction warfare” indicator will pop up on your radar.
What you might not know is that with enough time and effort you can pull that Terminator along like a pull-string duck taking them from base to base and using it as your own personal walking turret, granted one that will prioritize your death over everything else. Awesome. Just remember that the Terminator is not in any way subtle so bringing it as your +1 to a base party is almost guaranteed to get reinforcements called in. You probably also lose out on some exp gain in the process.
If you are looking to cheese the game some people have reported success in pulling the Terminator into being submerged in water which apparently is an instant kill. This isn’t a guarantee.
#2: “I Can’t Start The Mission!”
There have been bug reports from people who are unable to start the event period. Ghost Recon doesn’t allow them to obtain the mission kicking off the whole Terminator event as it just isn’t available from Maria Schulz. The most reliable fix for this seems to be joining co-op with someone who has the mission available. You want to look for “The Coming Storm,” a green faction mission in Erewhon. Taking the mission in co-op will keep it available in single player so you are free to go back into solo mode and the rest of the missions should come up fine.
An alternate answer appears to be creating a second character. Unfortunately neither of these two options is a 100% guaranteed fix. Ubisoft is evidently aware of the problem and hopefully can provide a suitable fix before the event is done and people lose out completely.
#3: Terminator Damage Is In Two Stages
This one should be self evident given the big glowing red light that pops up once you bring a Terminator’s health down, but it’s worth noting given the confusion I’ve seen on the forums and Reddit.
Each Terminator has two stages of damage that operate differently and may be confusing. The first stage you’ll find a Terminator in is the blue bar of health that gets whittled down by many of the weapons in your armament (see below). Once you knock down the blue health bar, the Terminator will go into mode #2 where you see the big glowing red light on its chest. This is the part where you’ll absolutely need to use the Mk14 sniper to overload its circuits.
Despite what conventional wisdom will tell you, this red bar is a count up, not a countdown. So you’ll fill the bar instead of depleting it in order to overload the Terminator. A small distinction but one that might result in your fights making a little more sense and give a better idea of how close your are to killing the Terminator. You’ll know you are damaging the core because of the distinct sound that each hit makes.
#4: Mk14 Needed To Kill, Not To Damage
Conventional weapons cannot kill a Terminator, however this does not mean you are stuck using the Mk14 for the whole fight. In fact you’re likely to find just about any other weapon in your loadout is more effective at whittling down a Terminator than a slow shooting sniper rifle. Youtuber Mannocrity found that the best way to take down a Terminator is with the Stoner light machine gun kitted to effectively make it a laser.
Your mileage may vary and you might find a weapon better suited for your play style in taking down Terminators. Where the Mk14 comes in however is the stage of overloading the Terminator’s circuits. You absolutely need the Mk14 for this stage. Otherwise Terminators are classified as drones in Breakpoint’s system so if you have a weapon that is better built for taking down drones, use it. It will most likely serve you better for that first stage.
#5: Maria Schulz Has More Cosmetics
There are 21 levels of rewards for the Terminator event battle pass, however if you have some Skell credits to spend you can head over to Maria Schulz’s shop in Erewhon and buy some extra goodies for your character. Personally I like the torn arm sleeves and damaged face (see photo above). The items aren’t too expensive and it’s pretty obvious which ones are from the Terminator franchise.
Kritika Reboot has a problem with gold farmers and cheaters. Who doesn’t?
Every so often the folks at ALLM Co. publish a list of banned accounts presumably as a form of public hanging and potentially to convince potential cheaters/gold buyers to not do those things. This week marked the temporary suspension of 77 accounts with 161 accounts being permanently suspended for the use of unauthorized programs. ALLM took the time to remind users of its continuing pledge to remove cheaters from the game.
Netmarble this week launched Magic: ManaStrike, the first in the franchise to be released on iOS and Android. The game takes place in a timeline where the Planeswalkers defeat Nicol Bolas. Bolas creates a parralel universe to find the Planeswalker’s weakness. ManaStrike offers fast paced and easy to learn gameplay in real time battles in three minute matches with players around the world.
“Netmarble and Wizards of the Coast worked closely for a long time to ensure Magic: ManaStrike is a new gameplay style that will be enjoyable for all players, but stays true to Magic: The Gathering’s roots and is authentic and enjoyable to fans,” said Joe Lee, Executive Producer at Netmarble. “Thanks to our partnership, we are excited to deliver a Magic: The Gathering experience that introduces real-time battles for mobile players, yet maintains core features from the original IP for fans.”
Players can expect a slew of events to celebrate ManaStrike’s launch. ManaStrike is available on iOS and Android in English, Korean, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Indonesian, Thai, Russian and Portuguese.
“With Magic: ManaStrike, we were impressed with Netmarble’s ability to encapsulate Magic: The Gathering‘s 25-year history into a mobile game that stays true to what Magic fans want in other mediums,” said Eugene Evans, VP of Business Development and Strategy at Wizards of the Coast. “Seeing our cards and Planeswalkers stepping into the 3D battlefield, along with our card effects translated from strategic turn-based gameplay into real-time combat, is a delight to see and we can’t wait to see how Magic: ManaStrike develops over time.”
Having trouble getting on Steam today? You’re not alone as the service appears to be undergoing a major service outage.
As of 12:30 p.m. on January 30, Valve’s servers are down pretty much universally and globally preventing players from accessing the store or any of its functions, downloading games, and affecting inventories and game coordinators for Valve’s titles. Looking at the charts on Steamstat.us, Valve’s services were suffering from recurring minor issues for several hours before the whole service just tanked.
There has been no public acknowledgement from Valve on the outage which isn’t completely out of the ordinary.
Hunter’s Arena: Legends will officially hit closed beta next month for Steam players in specific locales. Players can register through the Mantisco portal with 10,000 players to be selected when the beta goes live next month. Timeline for the beta per-region has been announced to be;
America: Thursday, Feb. 20 to Sunday, Feb. 23 from 6 p.m. to 12 p.m. (GMT -7)
Europe: Thursday, Feb. 20 to Sunday, Feb. 23 from 6 p.m. to 12 p.m. (GMT +1)
Asia: Thursday, Feb. 20 to Sunday, Feb. 23 from 6 p.m. to 12 p.m. (GMT +9)
Those of you who didn’t watch WWE Royal Rumble can check out the trailer below. Hunter’s Arena combines MOBA-style gameplay with a battle royale game mode to pit 60 players in a last-man-standing game.
Overwatch matches scheduled to take place in China have been cancelled.
In case you haven’t been watching the news, the Coronavirus has become a pretty big deal and more so because of the danger it poses than the beer memes it has inspired. Blizzard announced via Twitter today that all matches scheduled for the next two months within China have been cancelled for the protection of players and staff.
MMO Fallout 